Aisha
Free
Users seeking culturally grounded AI responses
Sidian DataGuard
Paid
When a senior engineer leaves, their reasoning leaves with them — buried in a personal drive, an email thread, or a detail they never wrote down. Sidian DataGuard, marketed as 'Sid,' exists to pull that institutional memory out of people's heads and into a structure the whole firm can query.
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Summary
Sid crawls existing project archives — drawings, models, calculations, PDFs — and builds a searchable firm memory that connects to Revit, ETABS, SAP2000, and Excel without migrating your files. From inside those tools, engineers can retrieve precedent shear wall details, generate preliminary steel or concrete member schedules from a grid, and run code checks against AISC 360, ACI 318, and ASCE 7 with deficiency flagging. The decision-logging feature links every engineering call to who made it, when, which drawing it references, and the governing clause — so project rationale survives personnel turnover. The platform is paid-only with no public API and no confirmed self-hosted installer, which creates a hard ceiling for firms with strict on-premises data sovereignty requirements.
Bottom line: Pick Sid when your firm's biggest risk is institutional knowledge walking out the door on a retirement; reconsider when your IT policy requires a confirmed, self-hosted container you control.
Pricing Plans
Subscription- Price
- $299 / user / month
Standard
$299per month
Full archive structuring, plain-language search with sources, tool integration
- Automated file ingestion
- Plain-language search with sources
- Tool integration included
On premises
Custom
Everything in Standard deployed on-premises for full data sovereignty
- Full data sovereignty
- No data leaving network
View full pricing on sidian.ai →
Pricing may have changed since last verified. Check the official site for current plans.
Find your fit
Before you choose Sidian DataGuard
More options in Productivity. Compare pricing, platforms, and features side by side.
AI Assist
Freemium
Users prioritizing on-device processing and data privacy
Pros
- Archive-wide search across drawings, models, calculations, and PDFs — so a junior engineer hunting for a precedent shear wall detail on a wind-governed shed finds it in seconds rather than cold-calling whoever ran the last similar job.
- Preliminary member generation from a grid input, which means the first cut at a steel moment frame exists in ETABS before the team has burned an afternoon on manual sizing.
- Code checks against AISC 360, ACI 318, and ASCE 7 with clause-level deficiency flagging, so the engineer reviewing the model sees exactly which member fails which provision rather than hunting through a generic overstress report.
- Decision logging tied to people, dates, drawings, and governing clauses — so when a senior engineer leaves mid-project, the team retains the reasoning behind every structural call rather than starting inference from scratch.
- Integration with Revit, ETABS, SAP2000, CAD, and Excel without file migration, so engineers run Sid from inside the tools they already trust rather than context-switching to a separate platform.
Cons
- No public API is available, which means Sid cannot be embedded in a firm's custom scripts, automated reporting pipelines, or third-party project management tools — teams that need programmatic access to retrieved precedents or check results have no path to it and must export manually.
- The on-premises option is referenced in vendor pricing but no public installer, container image, or deployment documentation is provided. Firms with air-gap requirements or strict data residency policies cannot confirm what on-prem actually delivers before committing, and at that point they evaluate competitors who publish a confirmed self-hosted path.
- The product is paid-only with no ongoing free tier — the trial is time-limited and upload-capped. Smaller firms or solo practitioners who need to validate fit across a full archive before committing find the trial window constrains what they can actually test.
- Sid is purpose-built for structural engineering workflows. Firms whose project delivery spans MEP, civil, or geotechnical disciplines will find the code-check and retrieval features do not map to those domains, and they end up maintaining Sid for structural alongside separate knowledge tools for everything else.
About
- Platforms
- Revit, ETABS, SAP2000, Excel, Bluebeam, CAD
- API Available
- No
- Self-Hosted
- No
- Last Updated
- September 29, 2026
Best For
Who it's for
- Structural engineering firms managing large project archives
- Teams needing code-compliant checks inside Revit and ETABS
- Organizations requiring on-premises data control
What it does well
- Search past projects for precedent shear wall or frame details
- Generate preliminary steel or concrete models from grid inputs
- Run design checks against AISC, ACI, and ASCE codes with deficiency flagging
- Log and retrieve the rationale for engineering decisions across the team
Integrations
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Sidian DataGuard free?
- Sidian DataGuard is a paid tool ($299 / user / month). A 7-day free trial is available.
- What platforms does Sidian DataGuard support?
- Sidian DataGuard is available on: Revit, ETABS, SAP2000, Excel, Bluebeam, CAD.
Curated lists that include this category
When knowledge walks out the door
When a senior engineer leaves, their reasoning leaves with them — buried in a personal drive, an email thread, or a detail they never wrote down. Sidian DataGuard, called Sid, crawls existing project archives of drawings, models, calculations, and PDFs to build a searchable firm memory.
Core features
The tool connects directly to Revit, ETABS, SAP2000, and Excel without moving files. Inside those programs engineers can pull precedent shear wall details, generate preliminary steel or concrete member schedules from a grid, and run code checks against AISC 360, ACI 318, and ASCE 7 with deficiency flagging. A decision-logging feature records who made each call, when it happened, which drawing it references, and the governing clause.
Access and limits
The vendor states data stays private and offers an on-premises option, though no public installer or deployment details are published. No public API is available, so teams needing scripted access must export manually. Pricing is listed at $299 per user per month with a 7-day trial.
Who it is for / who should skip it
Best for structural engineering firms that manage large archives and need code checks inside Revit or ETABS while keeping data on premises. Skip it if your team relies on custom scripts or needs documented on-premises deployment steps before purchase.
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